


For My Love I'd Shift the Planet's Axis

by Kaza999



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Gen, and by friendly i mean basically the exact opposite, hopefully this doesn't read as painfully awkward to you as it does to me, the last three dead men have a friendly chat, valduggery is only mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2018-01-19 16:44:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1476817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaza999/pseuds/Kaza999
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dexter and Saracen and Skulduggery are waiting for someone.  In the meantime, they talk.  Post-LSoDM, so spoilers, naturally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For My Love I'd Shift the Planet's Axis

**Author's Note:**

> 'For my love/I'd shift the planet's axis' is a line from the song 'the Doctor's Wife' by the Clockwork Quartet.
> 
> I'm aware Dexter seems pretty bloodthirsty here, but honestly, upon rereading lsodm, that's how he seems in the book to me too.

It's dark and it's cold and Skulduggery seems perfectly comfortable to sit here and wait but Dexter and Saracen are not. 

It's very quiet in the car. Dexter is draped over the back seat, trying to sleep but finding himself too restless and uneasy to do so. Saracen is in the passenger's seat, knotting his hands together out of nerves. Nobody is speaking.

There was a time when they would have talked. On a stakeout like this, there normally was no shortage of things to talk about. But Saracen and Dexter could think of nothing to say, and Skulduggery offers nothing.

Saracen drums his fingers on the dash, and furrows his brow in concentration. “Tell us about her,” Saracen says eventually.

Skulduggery looks at him. “What?”

“Valkyrie. Tell us about her.”

“You already know plenty about her.” Skulduggery's voice is low and quiet and neutral for the moment. 

“You're the one in love with her,” Dexter mutters, rolling his head to one side so he can look at Skulduggery. “You're the one who didn't kill a--” he notices how tense Skulduggery's shoulders have gotten and changes tactics. “You're the one who knew how dangerous she was. But you didn't stop her because you loved her too much. Tell us about her.”

“I'm not in love with her.” 

Skulduggery's voice has gotten very dangerous now, so Dexter backs off and says instead “Fine. She was your best friend, then. Her and Ghastly.” It still hurt a bit to say Ghastly's name, but Dexter presses on. “We were friends with Ghastly for years, but we barely met Valkyrie before...well. So, tell us about her.”

Skulduggery says nothing at all.

“You met when Gordon died, right?” Saracen asks carefully. That's what Gordon's Echo Stone had said, anyway. 

Skulduggery grunts. “At the funeral. Why do you care?”

Saracen shrugs. “I just want to know. Why is she worth all of this?”

“Why couldn't you just kill her?” Dexter asks quietly, now sitting up just in case he has to brace himself for a blow from Skulduggery. “That's really what we want to know. Why do we have to do all this?”

“Because it's Valkyrie.”

“What does that _mean_ , though?” Dexter asks, frustrated. “If it were anyone else you wouldn't want to save them.”

“If it were _us_ , you would have killed us a long time ago, before we got around to threatening the whole world, and you know it.” Saracen says. “Just tell us what's so different about her.”

Skulduggery leans back in his seat. He lets out a sigh without parting his teeth. “Ask Gordon.” the Echo Stone was completely on board with the idea of somehow saving Valkyrie, and probably would have been pleased to answer whatever questions that Saracen and Dexter cared to ask him.

“We're not asking him. We're asking you.” Saracen and Dexter exchange a look with each other.

“We met at Gordon's funeral. Then we met at the will reading. And then we met at his house when some idiot came blundering in looking for whatever it was that Serpine wanted. Then she just stuck by me, and here we are.” he looks at both of them. “Happy now?”

“Not really.” Saracen says.

“Well, I don't care very much.” he leans his skull against the window in the door, shoulders slumping. He's suddenly looking very tired. “All you need to know is I have to save her. I promised her that. I'd save her or I'd stop her somehow.”

“Killing someone stops them pretty well,” Dexter says idly.

“She thought the same thing.”

Dexter bolts upright and Saracen whips his head around to stare at Skulduggery.

"Let me get this straight," Dexter hisses. "Valkyrie _herself_ thought she was dangerous enough to kill. But you still didn't bother?"

“I can't.” Skulduggery says very softly. “It's not something I can do.”

Saracen reaches over and gingerly puts the tips of his fingers on Skulduggery's shoulder. Skulduggery allows it for approximately ten seconds before shrugging the hand off. 

“Please,” Saracen says, pulling back. “Just tell us.”

Skulduggery is quiet for a long time. Finally, he says “You know that she rescued me from the Faceless Ones.” 

It isn't a question, but Dexter answers it anyway. “Yeah.” both Dexter and Saracen remembered the eleven or so months when Skulduggery had been missing. Neither they nor Anton nor Erskine had been contacted, however, until Skulduggery was found. They didn't know why this was, and it was something Dexter very much wanted to know, but this was not the time nor the place for that discussion. 

“She was fourteen. She was the only one who even thought it could be possible. Solomon Wreath gave her the idea, and Ghastly and Tanith and China backed her up, but she was the only one who thought I might still be alive. She was the only one who was convinced that she was going to rescue me.” Skulduggery looks at them. “Not even Ghastly thought I could still be alive after almost a year with the Faceless Ones. Just her.”

He looks back out the windshield. “And she came through to get me. She came through _on her own_ and got me, with no backup and no weapons but her Necromancy ring. And when she found me, she practically dragged me back to Earth. She would accept nothing but me being safely back on Earth.” 

“So you owe her, then.” Dexter says, sitting back. That was disappointing, but not unexpected. 

“It's not about owing,” Skulduggery argues.

“Then what is it about?” Saracen asks.

Skulduggery stares up at the ceiling. “She's a good person,” he says at length. “Far better than I could ever be. And she deserves a chance. She deserves a rescue, not a mercy kill.”

Suddenly, across the road, a series of headlights make themselves known.

“That'll be them,” Dexter says, and hands Skulduggery and Saracen their respective weapons. The three of them equip themselves sufficiently, and wait for the newcomers to approach them.


End file.
